MiddleEastExplorer Home > Turkey >
Santur
Found in: Turkish musical instruments Iranian musical instruments
The santoor is an Indian hammered dulcimer similar to the Persian santur.
The santur is a hammered dulcimer of Iran. It is a trapezoid-shaped box often made of walnut, with 72 strings. The name means one hundred strings in Persian. The special-shaped mallets (mezrab) are lightweight and are held between the index and middle fingers. A typical santur has two sets of bridges, providing a range of approximately three octaves. The right-hand strings are made of brass, while the left-hand strings are made of steel.Two rows of 9 articles called "Kharak" (Totally 18 kharaks) divide Santur into three positions and each lead four unitone strings to the right and left side of the instrument . Each note comes three times in three positions [making (9*3) 27 tones all together] and doubles in frequency going to the left . As four notes are repeated in tonation we have only 23 tones in Santur. The Santur is primarily tuned a variety of different diatonic scales which utilizes 1/4 tones or semi-tones. There are 12 modes of Persian classical music which is known as the "Radif" which consists of 12 Dastgahs or Modes. Each Dastgah has its own tuning and character which derives from the different parts of Iran (Persia) which dates back thousands of years and was only preserved thru performance until the late Ostad Abol Hassan Saba the legendary Master of Persian classical music, who notated and categorized 3500 years of Persian music into the "Radif of Saba."
Derivations
Many instruments around the world at least in part derive from the santur. Similar forms of the santur have been present in neighboring cultures like Armenia, Turkey, and Iraq for centuries. The Indian santoor is thicker, more rectangular, and can have more strings. Its corresponding mallets are also held differently. The Chinese yangqin may have originated from the Persian santur. The Roma people introduced a derivative of the santur called the cymbalum to Eastern Europe, which in turn likely led to the development of the clavichord and the piano. The Greek santouri is also derived from the santur, and in Nikos Kazantzakis' classic novel Zorba the Greek Zorba plays the santouri.
History
Ancient Assyrian and Babylonian illustrations depict santurs. [*]
Notable Persian santur players
Ostad Abol-Hassan Saba
Ostad Manoochehr Sadeghi
Ostad Faramarz-e Payvar
Ostad Faramarz Heydari
Ostad Parviz Meshkatian
Ostad Majid Kiani
Ostad Mirza Ali Akbar Shahi
Hasan Khan
Ostad Habib Soma'i
Hoseyn Malek
Reza Varzandeh
Mansur Saremi
Djalal Akhbari
Omid Tahmasebpur
Ostad Arfa Atrai
Dariush Saghafi
Afshin Max Sadeghi
ostad Ardavan Kamkar
Pashang Kamkar
Behnam Manahedji
Kazem Davoudian
Reza Shafian
Kourosh Zolani
Pooyan Nassehpoor
Ali Tahriri
Edward A. M. Gloeggler iv
Notable Iraqi santur players
Amir ElSaffar
Hugi Pataw
Mohamed Zaki Darwish
See also
Persian classical music
External links
Santur introduction in American Lutherie magazine
Info about Persian musicians and santur
Nay-Nava Encyclopedia entry on the santur
Dr. Umit Mutlu's information on the santur (in Turkish)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Santur